MENTAL HEALTH AT STAKE

Health Secretary Sajid Javed urged to take immediate action as more than eight million sick days taken in past five years across health services in the UK… reports LDD Newsdesk

Health Secretary Sajid Javed is facing another Herculean task as data reveals mental health crisis at NHS trusts across the United Kingdom.

A Freedom of Information request tabled by the opposition Liberal Democrat Party has revealed that there have been at least 8.3 million mental health sick days since 2017.  The number of mental health sick days has increased every year since 2017, with some NHS Trusts seeing large increases during the pandemic years.

The data exposed the mental health crisis sweeping through staff across health services in the UK. It shows that in 2021 alone more than two million days were taken off sick by staff suffering from mental health issues – the equivalent of 6,041 years.

Liberal Democrat analysis of the data taken from 67 Hospital Trusts shows that Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has been hit, with a staggering 591,254 working days lost to mental illness.

 “Years of the Conservatives taking the NHS for granted has left our health service understaffed and overworked, while the pandemic has worsened the huge pressures facing frontline staff,” said Daisy Cooper MP, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson. “These staggering figures show the NHS is facing a tidal wave of mental health-related absences. This must be a wake-up call to this Conservative government that they can’t turn a blind eye to this crisis any longer.

 “Sajid Javid needs to come up with a clear plan to support NHS staff, starting by fixing chronic staffing shortages and reducing unsustainable workloads. Every day that the Conservatives go on ignoring this problem will mean more NHS staff falling ill from work-related stress, and more patients going without the care they need.”

 The data also shows that both the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury) and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust have sky high figures with 555,798 and 401,417 sick days respectively.

The Liberal Democrats who have revealed the damning statistics are calling for a host of improvements to help tackle the NHS mental health crisis.

They are calling on the Government to fix the workforce crisis in our health services by filling the 100,000 vacancies in the NHS. The health service cannot function properly when it is this understaffed, when staff are stretched so thin and working excessive hours. 

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